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Monthly Archives: March 2014

It’s spring and Easter is just around the corner! What does that mean for us? It means hitting up the stores for the latest spring trends, attending Easter celebrations in church and/or at home. But the one thing I am excited about are the Cadbury eggs that come to convenient stores everywhere. What is not to love about this hollow chocolate egg filled with caramel or cream? Absolutely nothing.

Nigella Lucy Lawson (born 6 January 1960) is an English journalist, broadcaster, television personality, gourmet, and food writer. She is the daughter of Nigel Lawson, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Vanessa (née Salmon) Lawson, whose family owned the J. Lyons and Co. food and catering business. After graduating from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University, Lawson started work as a book reviewer and restaurant critic, later becoming the deputy literary editor of The Sunday Times in 1986. She then embarked upon a career as a freelance journalist, writing for a number of newspapers and magazines. In 1998, she brought out her first cook book, How to Eat, which sold 300,000 copies and became a best-seller. She wrote her second book in 2000, How to be a Domestic Goddess, which won her the British Book Award for Author of the Year.

In 1999, she hosted her own cooking show series, Nigella Bites, on Channel 4, accompanied by another best-selling cook book. Nigella Bites won Lawson a Guild of Food Writers Award; her 2005 ITV daytime chat show Nigella was met with a negative critical reaction and was cancelled after attracting low ratings. She hosted the Food Network‘s Nigella Feasts in the United States in 2006 followed by a three-part BBC Two series, Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen, in the UK, which led to the commissioning of Nigella Express on BBC Two in 2007. Her own cookware range, Living Kitchen, has a value of £7 million, and she has sold more than 3 million cook books worldwide to date.

Nigel and Vanessa Lawson divorced in 1980. They both remarried; her father in 1980 to a House of Commons researcher, Therese Maclear (to whom he was married until 2008),[13] and her mother, in the early 1980s, to philosopher, A. J. Ayer (they remained married until her mother’s death).[6] As her father, Nigel, is a prominent political figure, some of the things she found frustrating were the judgements and pre-conceptions about her.[10] Lawson did not get on well with her father during her parents’ divorce, and she became friendly with her mother only when she reached adulthood.[14] She has attributed her unhappiness as a child, in part, to the problematic relationship she had with her mother.[11]

Lawson’s school years were difficult; she had to move schools nine times between the ages of 9 and 18, spending some of her childhood in the Welsh village of Higher Kinnerton. “I was just difficult, disruptive, good at school work, but rude, I suspect, and too highly-strung”, Lawson reflected.[16] Her father originally chose not to believe the reports of her disruptive behaviour and thought the school had the wrong person.[14] Lawson reluctantly attended a private school in the Midlands and later attended London’s Godolphin and Latymer School sixth form where she began to show skill academically.[14] She worked for many department stores in London,[23] and went on to graduate from the University of Oxford[23] with a degree in medieval and modern languages.[24] She lived in Florence, Italy for a period of time.[15]

Lawson originally worked in publishing, first taking a job under publisher Naim Attallah.[23] At 23, she began her career in journalism after Charles Moore had invited her to write for The Spectator.[23] Her initial work at the magazine consisted of writing book reviews,[25][26] after which period she became a restaurant critic there in 1985.[16] She became the deputy literary editor of The Sunday Times in 1986 at the age of 26.[16][27]

She occasionally drifted into the public’s eye, attracting unwanted publicity in 1989 when she admitted voting for Labour in an election as opposed to her father’s Conservative Party, and then criticised Margaret Thatcher in print.[6] Regarding her political relationship with her father, Lawson has stated, “My father would never expect me to agree with him about anything in particular and, to be honest, we never talk about politics much.”[28]

Lawson had an established sense of cooking from her childhood, having had a mother who enjoyed cooking.[11] She conceived the idea of writing a cook book after she observed a dinner party host in tears because of an unset crème caramel.[31]How to Eat (1998),[16] featuring culinary tips on preparation and saving time,[31] sold 300,000 copies in the UK.[25]The Sunday Telegraph dubbed it “the most valuable culinary guide published this decade.”[32]

Its successor, How to be a Domestic Goddess (2000), focuses primarily on baking.[15] Of this second bestseller, The Times wrote of Lawson’s book, that it “is defined by its intimate, companionable approach. She is not issuing matronly instructions like Delia; she is merely making sisterly suggestions”.[11] Lawson rejected feminist criticism of her book,[33] adding that “[s]ome people did take the domestic goddess title literally rather than ironically. It was about the pleasures of feeling like one rather than actually being one.”[3] The book sold 180,000 copies in four months,[31] and won Lawson the title of Author of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2001,[25] fending off competition from authors such as J. K. Rowling.[34]How to Eat and How to be a Domestic Goddess were published in the U.S. in 2000 and 2001.[35] As a result of the book’s success, The Observer took on her as a social affairs columnist.[16]

Lawson next hosted her own cooking show television series, Nigella Bites, which ran from 1999 to 2001 on Channel 4,[36][37] followed by a Christmas special in 2001.[38]Victor Lewis-Smith, a critic usually known for his biting comments, praised Lawson for being “formidably charismatic”.[3] The first series of Nigella Bites averaged 1.9 million viewers,[39] and won her the Television Broadcast of the Year at the Guild of Food Writers Awards[40] and the Best Television Food Show at the World Food Media Awards in 2001.[41] The show yielded an accompanying best-selling recipe book, also called Nigella Bites,[42] for which Waterstone’s book stores reported UK sales of over 300,000.[43] The book won a W H Smith Award for Lifestyle Book of the Year.[44]

The Nigella Bites series, which was filmed in her home in west London, was later broadcast on American television on channels E![45] and Style Network.[25] Lawson said of the US release, “In the UK, my viewers have responded to the fact I’m trying to reduce, not add to, their burden and I’m looking forward to making that connection with Style viewers across the US”.[45] Overall, Lawson was well received in the United States.[28] Those who did criticise her often suggested she was too flirtatious; a commentator from The New York Times said, “Lawson’s sexy roundness mixed with her speed-demon technique makes cooking dinner with Nigella look like a prelude to an orgy”.[25] The book of Nigella Bites became the second bestselling cook book of Christmas 2002 in America.[46] The series was followed by Forever Summer with Nigella in 2002 on Channel 4, the concept being, “that you cook to make you still feel as though you’re on holiday”.[28]

In 2002 she also began to write a fortnightly cooking articles for The New York Times,[4] and brought out a profitable line of kitchenware, called the Living Kitchen range, which is sold by numerous retailers.[29] Her range’s value has continued to grow, starting at an estimated £2 million in 2003,[47] and increasing to £7 million in 2007.[48]

In November 2003, Lawson oversaw the menu and preparations for a lunch hosted by Tony Blair at Downing Street for George W. Bush and his wife during their state visit to the UK.[49]Laura Bush is said to be a fan of Lawson’s recipes and once included one of her soups as the starter for the 2002 presidential Christmas dinner.[46] Lawson’s fifth book, Feast: Food that Celebrates Life, released in 2004,[50] made sales worth £3 million.[51] London’s Evening Standard wrote that the book “works both as a practical manual and an engrossing read. … Nobody else writes so openly about the emotional significance of food.”[52] Lawson appeared frequently on American television in 2004, conducting cookery slots on talk shows such as The Ellen DeGeneres Show.[53]

In the UK in 2005, Lawson started to host a daytime television chat show on ITV1 called Nigella, on which celebrity guests joined her in a studio kitchen.[21] The first episode debuted with a disappointing 800,000 viewers.[54] The show was met with a largely negative critical reaction,[55] and after losing 40% of its viewers in the first week, the show was cancelled.[56] She later commented to Radio Times that on her first show, she was almost too frightened to come out of her dressing room.[57] Lawson added that having to pretend to be interested in the lives of the celebrities on her show became too much of an effort.[21] She discovered, “I can’t ever be a presenter, and won’t do scripts”.[58]

Her third food-based television series, called Nigella Feasts, debuted on the USA’s Food Network in Autumn 2006 for a 13-week run.[56]Time magazine wrote a favorable review of the show; “the real appeal of Feasts … is her unfussy, wry, practical approach to entertaining and quality comfort food. … between the luscious camera shots and Lawson’s sensual enjoyment of eating, Feasts will leave you wishing for an invite”.[59] Since the American broadcasting, Lawson signed a £2.5 million deal for the series to be shown in ten other countries across the world.[60]

Lawson was next signed to BBC Two to host a three-part cookery show entitled Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen, which began on 6 December 2006 and aired weekly. The first two episodes secured the second highest ratings of the week for BBC Two, with the first episode debuting with a strong 3.5 million.[61][62] The final episode went on to become the top show on BBC Two the week that it was aired.[61]Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen won Lawson a second World Food Media Award in 2007.[63] Her influence as a food commentator was also demonstrated in late 2006, when after she had lauded goose fat as being an essential ingredient for Christmas, sales percentages of the product increased significantly in the UK. Waitrose and Tesco both stated that goose fat sales had more than doubled, as well as Asda‘s goose fat sales increasing by 65% from the previous week.[64] Similarly, after she advised using prunes in a recipe on Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen, Waitrose had increased sales of 30% year on year.[65][66]

Nigella’s Christmas Kitchen led to the commissioning of a 13-part cookery series entitled Nigella Express.[67] The series began to air on BBC Two on 3 September 2007, suggesting ways of making simple and quick dishes.[68] Lawson admitted the recipes were not “particularly healthy”,[69] although she added, “I wouldn’t describe them as junk”.[70] The show became another ratings success and one of BBC Two’s top-rated shows each week.[71] The first episode debuted with 2.85 million viewers,[71] a high percentage above the channel’s slot average.[72] The second episode’s viewing figures rose to 3.3 million,[73] and the series peaked at 3.4 million on 22 October 2007.[74]

Her influence with the public was again demonstrated when sales of Riesling wine increased by 30% in the UK after she had incorporated it into her Coq au Riesling recipe on Nigella Express.[75] Later, a similar trend was seen in the sales figures of the liqueurAdvocaat after Lawson had endorsed it on the show.[76]

Lawson came under criticism when viewers complained that she had gained weight since the debut episode of the series.[77]The Guardian however, noted, “the food matches her appearance – flawless, polished and sexy”.[78] The rights to Nigella Express have been sold to the Food Network in America,[48] and to Discovery Asia.[79] The series was nominated at the 35th Daytime Emmy Awards in the United States for Outstanding Lifestyle Program, and Lawson herself for the Outstanding Lifestyle Host.[80]

The accompanying book to Nigella Express was released in the UK in September 2007, U.S. in November 2007,[48] and in Australia in 2008.[81] Sharing the same name as the television series, the book became another best-seller in the UK,[82] and was outselling television chef Jamie Oliver by 100,000 copies, according to Waterstone’s. It was reported that over 490,000 copies had been sold by mid-December in the UK.[43] Furthermore, the book was number one for a period on Amazon UK’s bestselling books,[43] and was ninth on their overall list of Christmas bestsellers in any category.[83] Paul Levy of The Guardian wrote that the tone of the recipes was “just right. One of the appealing things about Nigella’s brief introductions to each of them is that she thinks not just as cook, but as eater, and tells you whether they’re messy, sticky or fussy.”[78] In January 2008, Lawson was estimated to have sold more than 3 million books worldwide.[84] Her Christmas book was released in October 2008 and the television show in December of the same year. An American edition of the book “Nigella Christmas” with a different cover photograph was released in November 2009 with an accompanying book tour of several US cities and a special on the USA’s Food Network.[citation needed]

Lawson was featured as one of the three judges on a special battle of Iron Chef America, titled “The Super Chef Battle”, which pitted White House Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford and Iron Chef Bobby Flay against chef Emeril Lagasse and Iron Chef Mario Batali. This episode was originally broadcast on 3 January 2010. Lawson’s cookbook Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home (2010) is a tie-in with the TV series “Nigella Kitchen.” This was shown in the UK and on the USA’s Food Network. The book and series were both critical and financial successes. Nigellissima: Instant Italian Inspiration (2012) was met with more criticism in the UK than her previous cookbooks. It fared better with critics in the US and Italy. The 8 part TV series entitled Nigellissima was broadcast by the BBC.

Though Lawson has enjoyed a successful career in cookery, she is not a trained chef,[85] and does not like being referred to as a “celebrity chef”.[10] Furthermore, she does not see herself as a cook or an expert in her field.[15] Throughout Lawson’s television programmes,[86] she emphasises that she cooks for her own pleasure,[11] for enjoyment,[3] and that she finds cooking therapeutic. When deciding upon which recipes to feature in her books, she takes the view of the eater, stating, “If it’s something I don’t want to carry on eating once I’m full, then I don’t want the recipe … I have to feel that I want to cook the thing again”.[15]

Lawson has adopted a casual approach to cooking, stating, “I think cooking should be about fun and family. … I think part of my appeal is that my approach to cooking is really relaxed and not rigid. There are no rules in my kitchen.”[85] One editor, highlighting the technical simplicity of Lawson’s recipes, noted that “her dishes require none of the elaborate preparation called for by most TV chefs”.[87]

Lawson has become renowned for her flirtatious manner of presenting, although she argues “It’s not meant to be flirtatious. … I don’t have the talent to adopt a different persona. It’s intimate, not flirtatious”.[21] The perceived overt sexuality of her presentation style has led to Lawson’s being called the “queen of food porn“.[14][88][89] Many commentators have alluded to Lawson’s attractiveness, and she was once named as one of the world’s most beautiful women.[15] She has been referred to as “stunningly beautiful, warm, honest, likeable and amazingly normal”,[16] as well as being described as having “flawless skin, perfect white teeth, a voluptuous body, ample height and lots of lush, brown hair”.[85] The media has also noted Lawson’s ability to engage with both male and female viewers;[3][26][90]The Guardian wrote, “Men love her because they want to be with her. Women love her because they want to be her”.[10] The chef, Gary Rhodes, spoke out against Lawson by suggesting that her viewers are attracted to her smile rather than the cooking itself.[91] Despite often being labelled as a domestic goddess,[92] she insists that she exhibits very few of the qualities associated with the title.[26][28]

Lawson is also known for her vivid and adjective-filled food descriptions in both her books and television programmes,[93] as one critic summarised, “her descriptions of food can be a tangle of adjectives.”[35] In a study conducted in 2007 on the readability of different recipes, the chatty and florid style of Lawson’s recipes was judged to be confusing to readers with weak reading skills.[94] Lawson has also expressed her surprise at how many reviews in the United States have mentioned her class and posh accent.[6]

Lawson met journalist John Diamond in 1986, when they were both writing for The Sunday Times.[16] They married in Venice in 1992[14] and have a daughter, Cosima and a son, Bruno.[96][97] Diamond was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1997 and died in March 2001, aged 47.[25] One of his last messages to Lawson was, “How proud I am of you and what you have become. The great thing about us is that we have made us who we are.”[3] His death occurred during the filming of Nigella Bites; “I took a fortnight off. But I’m not a great believer in breaks”, Lawson explained;[3] however, she suffered a bout of depression following the funeral.[10] After Diamond’s death, Lawson kept all of the press clippings in what she called her “Morbidobox”.[3]

Lawson married art collector Charles Saatchi in September 2003,[98] having drawn disapproval when she moved in with him nine months after Diamond’s death.[14] In June 2013, photographs were published by the Sunday People newspaper of Lawson being grabbed around the neck by Saatchi during an argument outside a London seafood restaurant.[99][100] Saatchi later described the pictures as showing only a “playful tiff”.[101] After a police investigation of the incident, Saatchi was cautioned for assault, and it was reported that Lawson had left the family home.[102][103]

Saatchi announced his divorce from Lawson in early July, stating that he had “clearly been a disappointment to Nigella during the last year or so” and the couple had “become estranged and drifted apart”. Lawson made no public comment in response;[104] however, court papers showed that it was Lawson who filed for divorce, citing ongoing unreasonable behaviour.[105] On 31 July 2013, seven weeks after the incident, the pair was granted a decree nisi, ending their ten-year marriage.[105] They reached a private financial settlement.[105]

On 27 November 2013, a trial of the former couple’s two personal assistants, Italian-born sisters Elisabetta and Francesca Grillo, began in R v Grillo and Grillo. The Grillos were accused of fraudulently using the credit cards of Saatchi’s private company.[106][107] During court proceedings in early December, the sisters claimed that Lawson had permitted their use of the credit cards in exchange for their silence regarding her drug use. Questions regarding Lawson’s drug use have been allowed by the judge as part of the sisters’ “bad character” defence. During the trial, Lawson recalled her response upon hearing of the fraud allegations in relation to Elisabetta: “She broke our heart. It’s very difficult when you find out that someone you have loved and trusted could behave that way. In my heart of hearts I don’t believe Lisa to be a bad person but I do believe that she doesn’t have a very strong moral compass.”[108]

On 20 December 2013, the two sisters were acquitted. Scotland Yard confirmed that Ms Lawson would not be the subject of an investigation based on claims made in court that she consumed cocaine; however, the decision will be reviewed if new evidence comes to light.[109] It has been alleged that Charles Saatchi started a smear campaign against Lawson in the British media, through PR man Richard Hillgrove, relating to her drug use that began even before the trial was over.[110][111][112] Lawyers for Lawson have demanded that Hillgrove remove comments about her made in his blog.[113]

Saatchi was worth a reputed £100 million,[114] while Lawson was worth £15 million as of 2007, £8 million of which came from book sales.[60] It widely began circulating in the media in early 2008 that Lawson had been quoted as saying her two children should not inherit any of the fortune.[114] She strongly denied these plans in a statement on her personal website, which read, “Of course I have no intention of leaving my children destitute and starving – rather, this is a story that came from a comment I made about my belief that you have to work in order to learn the value of money”.[115]

Although both of Lawson’s parents are Jewish,[10] her bringing was non observant and Lawson herself identifies as an atheist.[14][116] In one of her newspaper articles, she has shown a liberal attitude to sexuality (“most [women] simply have, somewhere, a fantasy about having sex, in a non-defining, non-exclusive way, with other women.”)[117] Lawson has said she often partakes in watching football, and is an avid supporter of Chelsea.[118]

Lawson is a supporter of the Lavender Trust which gives support to young women with breast cancer. She first became involved with the charity in 2002 when she baked some lavender cupcakes to be auctioned at a fundraising event, which sold for a significant amount of money. She subsequently featured the recipe in her book, Forever Summer with Nigella.[119]

In December 2008, Lawson caused controversy and was featured in various newspapers for publicly advocating wearing fur. She also remarked that she would love to kill a bear and then wear it.[120][121]

It was revealed by leaked Whitehall documents in 2003 that Lawson declined an OBE from Queen Elizabeth II in 2001.[122] As the daughter of a life peer, Nigella is entitled to the courtesy title of “The Honourable”, and is thus styled The Hon. Nigella Lawson; however, she does not use this courtesy title.

I got this off of a Wikipedia websitehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigella_Lawson

This is one of my favorite soups made easy. It’s a tomato based soup with noodles. What’s not to love? I love it with sour cream. But recently I put french dip and it exploded with flavor and creaminess!!! It’s great on a cold day with cheese quesadillas to dip. Or do the healthy way and cut up avocado with a dash of salt, yum!!!

P.S. Make sure you invite a friend to eat it with you because you can make a good amount with this packet and it doesn’t keep well in the fridge. Enjoy!

I watch the food network channel a lot, and one of my favorite people to watch is Ina Gartner in the Barefoot Contessa! In the kitchen she has such elegance about her and I am always loving what she is making on the show! She is full of kindness and generosity. She put out a line of her famous frozen dinners at local grocery stores. I tried her shrimp scampi and I almost fell over! The quality of my meal went beyond my normal standards. The flavors in the sauce were remarkable and the shrimp was good quality. I would have to give it a two thumbs up!

Ina Rosenberg Garten (/ˈaɪnə/ eye-nə; born February 2, 1948) is an American author, Emmy Award winning host of the Food Network program Barefoot Contessa, and former White House nuclear policy analyst.[1] Known for designing recipes with an emphasis on fresh ingredients and time-saving tips, she has been noted by Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, and Patricia Wells for her cooking and home entertaining.

Garten had no formal training; she taught herself culinary techniques, with the aid of French and New England cookbooks. Later, she relied on intuition and feedback from customers and friends to refine her recipes. She was mentored chiefly by Eli Zabar, owner of Eli’s Manhattan and Eli’s Breads, and food-show host and author Martha Stewart. Among her dishes are cœur à la creme, celery root remoulade, pear clafouti, and a simplified version of beef bourguignon. Her culinary career began with her gourmet food store, Barefoot Contessa; Garten then expanded her activities to several best-selling cookbooks, magazine columns, self-branded convenience products, and a popular Food Network television show.

In the summer of 2013 I noticed that everyone was going crazy over hummus. It was practically everywhere! From social media to commercials on tv. I felt that I needed to get on the hummus bandwagon, so I tried it and found out that I did not like hummus. The stuff is made of ground chickpeas and of course other ingredients. I realized that it is ok if you don’t like the hottest food available on the market. The truth is there will be another food craze!

So I have to ask, did you jump on the hummus bandwagon and if so how was it? Please share your experience!

Morning early risers! I must be in a breakfast kick this week! Lol I have tasted the best quiche that is not made from scratch, but in a box in the freezer section at publix. I love it! There are two flavors. There is spinach and the one I am eating today is bacon. The flavors are absolutely amazing!